Didn't Sampras say that he was disappointed by what he saw as a lack of acclaim in the US for them winning the 1995 Davis Cup on clay in Moscow against Russia? So it seems at that point, i.e. late 1995, Davis Cup was no longer viewed at or near the same level as the majors.
Sampras did say that, but then again he also complained about a lack of adulation and recognition after securing his 6th consecutive year end no. 1 finish in 1998, and winning his record 13th major at Wimbledon 2000. He seemed particularly annoyed that those accomplishments didn’t get him on the cover of Sports Illustrated - Wimbledon takes place during a pretty quiet sporting period in the US, during the NFL and NBA off-seasons and the MLB regular season.
It seems to me that Sampras’s feat in Moscow was widely covered and reported by Sports Illustrated and the like and not exactly ignored, but posters in the US can better comment on whether Sampras was right there. It seems to me that he was expecting a heroes’ reception at the airport when he arrived back or something.
Sampras could be a bit of a crybaby there. He wanted dealings with the media to be purely on his own terms, expecting greater recognition and credit, while often being lazy when it came to dealing with and making time for them, promoting the sport etc. Like Paul Scholes in football, I thought that he wasn’t shy when it came to media obligations, but just lazy.
In terms of the prestige of the Davis Cup, I think that in 1989 it was clearly huge and no less important than RG and the AO. Becker’s singles matches against Agassi (labelled by SI as one of the greatest matches of all time), Edberg and Wilander felt enormous and every bit as big as a major semi-final or final. The doubles matches vs. Flach / Seguso and Gunnarson / Jarryd were a huge deal as well. Wilander labelled his victory over Steeb on the opening day of the final as one of the most important of his career, after his win over Lendl in the previous year’s USO final which was clearly no. 1.
IMO it only declined and became noticeably less important than the majors from 1990. The new ATP tour place greater requirements and incentives on players to enter more sanctioned tournaments (also with the aim of them entering less invitationals), which I think clearly impacted the Davis Cup. Becker and Edberg began skipping ties after being stalwarts in the 80s. It was still important in the 90s - Boris Yeltsin publicly criticised Volkov after his defeat to Edberg in the 1994 final and wouldn’t have been happy that Russia suffered a 2nd consecutive final defeat at home in Moscow in 1995 - but clearly not as important as it was in the 80s when it was enormous.
